Note: Please
follow the link(s) on the navigation bar below to search additional messages that have been archived to conserve space. If no link is
visible, no messages have been archived on this board.

alt: I read something intersting in the paper this morning.... a "white' church has a reading club and they are discussing "The Help" and will go to see the movie this sunday.

Selma: I have a friend who lives in Williamsburg, she said when the book came out, she saw all these white women reading the book...she finally asked them were they all in a book club...and was it an assignment

AYWalton: it is quite popular. I read the book about a wee.k ago have not yet seen the movie, though.

Seventies Soulchild: Good afternoon all.

alt: hello Seventies Soulchild, G'Day to ya.

Seventies Soulchild: hi alt, AYWalton, Selma and 3rd Sharon Morgan posted a show on Hugh Quarshie of Ghana on facebook. I posted the links here http://tinyurl.com/3qv4mk3

AYWalton: what do they link to, SoulChile?

Seventies Soulchild: It was a very good episode. Covers research in Africa...

AYWalton: there are several links in that post.

Seventies Soulchild: Youtube videos of the WDYTYA episode

Selma: Ok I am showing my ignorance, who is Hugh Quarshie

AYWalton: of which episode? I think I watched most of them?

Seventies Soulchild: the subject of the investigation really has one of the best stories I've seen so far on WDYTYA.

alt: Selma, your postings on the Freedman's Bureau are quite informative,,, makes me think about all of the CW150 & USCT 'action'.... wonder why there isn't more information and activity surrounding the issue of contraband... at this point in the 5 year celebration that would seem more 'timely'.

Seventies Soulchild: Hugh Quarshie is a British actor Selma. This is the British edition of WDYTYA

AYWalton: ahhh the British edition, ok!

Seventies Soulchild: I also liked the episode on Ainsley Harriet. Ainsley used to have a cooking show here in the U.S. he's a wildly popular chef in the U.K.

AYWalton: I think that most people have no knowledge of Contrabands and who/what they were.

Selma: Probably cause folks just think of them as "contraband" instead of individuals and don't realize that there is info..just think "slaves" and until they take time to research..don't attach individuals names or identity

alt: and that's a shame in the whole scheme of the CW history AYWalton

AYWalton: Plus contrabands, just like the USCTs could not openly brag about their history---they returned to the south--which was home---and the same old enslavers were put back in charge.

Seventies Soulchild: That's why if they have pension files they should be researched as well as Regimental records.

Selma: Not only pension files..but the stuff in RG 105 for whatever state you are researching

AYWalton: there are so many stories in each file---but some of the stories take years to decipher. oh gracious yes---with RG105---you are getting a sideline report of history as it was happening.

freeaainnc: hi all

Seventies Soulchild: hello freeaainnc

alt: hello freeaainnc

AYWalton: when you read things like "hundreds of Negroes keep pouring into camp" you are really getting a view of self emancipation---a story never told.

Selma: You are getting wiki-leaks..these folks didn't know you were coming to look a these letters and reports 150 years later

AYWalton: or read letters like the ones who want to know if it is ok to shoot the Negroes walking all over the place.

Selma: Yes, AY..to the 100's and thousands

Seventies Soulchild: seriously? wow!

alt: and they (contraband) were used to support the Union Military machine some two years before the "official' entry of the USCT's.

Selma: There was a large contraband camp in Yorktown...there are letters about trying to get them to Texas Yes..there is that too AY..

AYWalton: and we don't have that image in our heads----today we see images of refugees in Somalia or Darfur---folks fleeing for a better life. Well that was OUR story in the 1860s. By the thousands------and all over the south!

Selma: The folks in Yorktown were very politically active..the FB wanted them select a delegate..

AYWalton: We don't know that story and it was not a rare story!

Selma: but they wanted them to select a white person..and they refused

Seventies Soulchild: That's been our story since the CW ended... actually, that's been our story since we got here.

AYWalton: we've had so many circumstances like that thrown our way. and the basic premise that we can't direct our own lives.

Selma: The one I posted on the Register of Children recognized by their father, ..in Franklin County, VA..it is obvious there was a register..but as far as I know it has not shown up yet..

AYWalton: yes I noticed that one, Selma.

Selma: It appears that many of these FB agents were very diligent..my question is were they doing that in the other states or just in Va..does anyone know

alt: another thought that crossed my mind on the "movies"..... Glory, when you really look at it, it wasn't about the 54th, but was more about their commander Robert Gould Shaw (?).... his trials, tribulations and the movie ended with his death.

Selma: I ordered a Maryland Roll of microfilm..gonna try to Hop over to the FHC before they send it back, it came in 2 weeks ago

Seventies Soulchild: yes. Interesting observation. But I think when I watched it, I was much more empathetic with the soldiers.

AYWalton: yes WE watch and see the soldiers---because they are us.

alt: De

Selma: Agreed

Seventies Soulchild: true

AYWalton: Kind of like Gone With the Wind----I zoom in on Prissy and Mammy, but the actual plot was not about them. With Glory--the story was about Shaw. and I zoom in (admittedly) on Denzel.!

alt: right on both accounts AYWalton

Seventies Soulchild: lol AYWalton! Agreed!

Selma: Agreed

AYWalton: In lots of old Black and white movies I zoom in on the maid (yes, the help) who answers the door, thought the plot is about the white protagonist. Selma what was the TV series that Cicely Tyson was in, back in the 60s?

alt: is this what is happening with "The Help" .. the focus depends on your ethnic background.

Selma: Oh jeez...was she a social worker

Seventies Soulchild: AYWalton, I absolutely hate those old movies because the film was never about us. We played a minor supporting role, always. I can't be bothered.

AYWalton: Depends on the story---if we were in it, I watch---zooming in on many things---the character---and in some cases they had more than an open the door scene---but they are rare. Selma have you been following all of the hype about The Help--especially the historians and their official statement?

Selma: Some of it..

Seventies Soulchild: I give up on that. lol I'm totally out of that discussion.

AYWalton: I blogged about The Help---not the movie or the book---but a few glimpses of TheHelp from my own family history.

alt: hello ProfDru how ya doing?

Seventies Soulchild: hi ProfDru

ProfDru: ok

AYWalton: http://tinyurl.com/3obyt9w

Selma: Didn't everyone have someone who was the "Help" in their family tree..

AYWalton: ProfDru is in da house!!!! oh yes, I would think so.

Seventies Soulchild: Yep. Some of our notable AA historical figures were "The Help"

AYWalton: Even some who relish their European ancestry---go back far enough and you will find The Help right there.

ProfDru: yes, selma, my grandmother

Selma: Jeez it was what my grandmother did when she came to this country from the WI..and did daywork her entire life.. The point was to give her daughter and then me the opportunity to do more..then she could

alt: if they know their genealogy & family history they have someone who was The Help.

freeaainnc: hi profdru, didn't see u come in

alt: talking bout folks of color.

Selma: Hi Dru

AYWalton: Exactly, Selma!

freeaainnc: um, alt - don't we always?

alt: nope freeaainnc, not 'always'.

Selma: and the Help, who worked in these families home, knew ALL Their BUSINESS, but many of these families didn't see it, cause you were like the furniture

AYWalton: I just wonder why the historians who complained about The Help have never complained about Madea Goes to Jail?

alt: isn't that amazing Selma, how they were ther. but not seen, or even recognized.

AYWalton: that is what Ralph Ellison talked about in Invisible Man---we are invisible to so many of them. and they truly believed that they were superior---and we were incapable of human characteristics.

freeaainnc: got to get back to work, bye!

Selma: This is how they can know say, we didn't realize it was that bad..cause in truth you were not on their radar

AYWalton: I recall in an interview years ago, when Cicely Tyson was in Sounder---you know the scene where he husband returns? where she is running down the road to meet him..........and someone remarked to her that they had no idea that black women had such emotions. No idea!

alt: ever notice on the TV the shows that are based on viewer popularity and polls seldom are WE the winners, finish in 2nd place often, but not the winners.

AYWalton: the inability to see the humanity in people of African Descent.

3rdthawkins: back, helo alt AY Dru Selma and Seventies

AYWalton: yes that happens for sure alt. I also notice that when there are lots of shots of folks in a crowd---there might be a 1-2 second shot of the black folks, but the whites get 4-5 seconds of face time in the same ad.

alt: wb 3rdthawkins

Seventies Soulchild: Yea I blame stupidity.

3rdthawkins: wow, more complaining

alt: nope 3rdthawkins, just stating some facts.

3rdthawkins: ok but I am liking the discussion I'm just not as passionate about it as you all are....but that's ok

Seventies Soulchild: Go along get along, but that's ok.

alt: read an article on how "white" Pres. Obama really is... his experience not being that of a 'typical" AA male.

3rdthawkins: I'm not going to h3ll because I don't accept Black folks Seventies Soulchild I am going to h3ll if I don't accept Christ in my life I'm not about Blackanity, I"m about Christianity

Seventies Soulchild: To me that's common sense based on the information that he put out there about himself and his family. Did we not figure this out?

AYWalton: ProfDru I finally got the post up I was working on.

alt: and how his 'blackness' (African father) lead into the life of being a black African American.

Seventies Soulchild: 3rdthwakins???

ProfDru: good

AYWalton: Greetings, VKN! Always good to see you.

alt: hello vkn, how ya doing?

vkn: Glad to C all y'all

AYWalton: Likewise, vkn.

3rdthawkins: I like the discussion though

AYWalton: how are you doing, ProfDru?

Seventies Soulchild: Oh some folks just don't realize how lucky they are that elders are in the room. Because I only have so much tolerance for foolishness as the years go forward.

vkn: Howdy Prof Drur

AYWalton: oops she's gone. @SoulChile.

Seventies Soulchild: vkn I posted an episode of the British WDYTYA in the History and genealogy forum